TJG creates flexi-space contract

Taylor Joynson Garrett has cemented its relationship with office space provider MWB and developed a new flexi-lease contract that grows with businesses.

Adam Marks, a partner in the commercial property department, and his colleague Alan Evans prepared the legal documents and advised MWB on its new flexi-space product.Marks said: “The challenge for Alan and me was to put aside conventional strategies and invent a new style for MWB. This involved finding an innovative approach.”Flexi-lease fills a gap between shorter office space contracts and conventional leases, enabling companies to stay in a building longer should they need to.Marks said: “We had to devise a simple agreement that linked short and long-term contracts.”The biggest problem they faced was working out the legal position for the new product, as it sits between leases and licensing. “It was a challenge to fit our clients' requirements into the requirements of the legal structure,” he said.They worked with MWB for four months before agreeing on the document's terms. Marks said: “By the end of the project, we'd strengthened our relationship with MWB.”His connection with the company began when he worked for Walsh Lawson, and he brought the client over to Taylor Joynson when he moved there in 1999.“I've been working with MWB since they started, and now they deal almost exclusively with us,” he said.MWB, which is one of the capital's leading office providers, will initially set the new leases at between two and five years. The leases are expected to be 35 to 45 per cent less expensive than serviced office space over two years.MWB has introduced the idea at three of its London centres – Marble Arch, Regent Street and Soho Square – and also plans to launch it in Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands later this year.